Welcome to Texas justice: You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Trying, in vain, to care about Rick Perry criminal charges

I've tried to feign interest in Rick Perry's indictment and the news that Judge Bert Richardson for now will allow the case to go forward. Really. Half the Austin press corps seems to be following the involved lawyers around like a gaggle of groupies, so it must be Very Important. It's just that my efforts have been hindered by my not caring so profoundly.

As governor, Rick Perry is on his way out and though Grits wishes him well, I don't particularly anticipate his ascension to the presidency, whether or not the charges stick. (Hell, in a Republican primary, strong-arming a drunken Democrat might boost his street cred!) Meanwhile, his alleged victim, Rosemary Lehmberg, is a lame duck DA and local laughingstock/punchline who will not run again in 2016. (I wouldn't wish what she's gone through on anyone but she brought it on herself.)

8 comments:

Lee
said...

To Rick Perry: "At an end his rule is and not short enough it was".

While I personally wish him as much misery as is possible for this waste of human existence, the charges against him are worthless. Vetoing legislation at his discretion is one of his constitutional powers as part of his job and not a crime.

My answer as to why to care would be to think of this process applied to some politician you actually liked. I've no particular opinion on Perry as a person (the only time I've even been to TX was for a couple hour layover at DFW in the mid 90s) but personally this seems like an extremely dangerous road to travel. And don't think this won't become common if it is allowed to continue and even more if somehow the charges stick.

@ Soronel, whether I like Rick Perry is hardly the point. Nor, I suspect, was it the point for Bert Richardson, who is about to ascend to the bench at the Court of Criminal Appeals, when he refused to dismiss the case this week. All I know of it is what I read in the papers and it seems like pretty weak tea. But these are also pretty serious people involved on all sides.

I just find that the more I hear, the less I care. (Admittedly, perhaps I'm reacting to coverage saturation in Austin.) I find the details mundane. I have no interest in defending Lehmberg. But Perry's team is doing all they can to turn it into a circus. I instinctively turn away from it for the same reason I never wasted tickets at the fair as a kid to go into the tent with the two-headed boy.

We'll see how it ends. I guess I hope Bert Richardson won't let it become a witch hunt. And I'm not worried Perry's legal representation will be inadequate. Otherwise, I'd really like the state's political press corps more focused on things that matter as we head into session and, respectfully, after just a very few more weeks, Rick Perry will no longer be one of them.

Count me in the good riddance crowd glad that Rick Perry won't be Governor for much longer.

Unfortunately we will suffer the consequences of his power and influence for many years to come because every single state agency and commission is stacked deep with loyal Perry cronies and political hacks.

Texas DPS for example is irreversibly changed with top tier hack Steve McCraw at the helm who has transformed that agency into a favored and powerful prop in the delusional Rick Perry for President crusade.

But I digress.

Even though I have zero use for Perry and the havoc he and his political hacks have wreaked on certain state agencies, all any reasonable person with basic criminal justice knowledge has to do is actually read the indictment handed down by the Travis County Grand Jury then read the applicable penal code statutes to know the charges against Perry won't survive pre-trial proceedings.

So GFB you are exactly right. Why get worked up and waste your time caring about a criminal case against Perry that lacks any substance?

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